Ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers Week 13 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, the Cardinals signed former Steelers WR Dan Chisena to their 53-man roster. Chisena was on Arizona’s practice squad, but with the team dealing with injuries to WRs Marqise Brown and Michael Wilson (who has been ruled out), the Cardinals are signing Chisena. NFL Insider Aaron Wilson passed along the news, which was first reported by Chisena’s agency.
A local kid from Paoli, Pa. who played his college ball at Penn State, Chisena’s lone NFL experience has come with the Minnesota Vikings. Chisena’s played in 27 games for the Vikings, logging 11 total tackles with a forced fumble as a core special teamer. He’s played 496 defensive snaps in his career compared to just 11 total offensive snaps, and all of those have come with Minnesota.
The Steelers signed Chisena to a reserve/futures contract last January, and he was with the team up until final roster cuts. Known for his speed, Chisena won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 relay at the 2015 PIAA Class AAA Outdoor State Championship in high school before walking on to the Penn State track and football teams. As a track athlete at Penn State, he was part of the team that won the 4×400 relay in the 2017 Big Ten Indoor Championships.
While the Cardinals do have depth issues at wide receiver, it would be surprising if Chisena was being signed for anything more than his special teams value. His lack of offensive snaps in the NFL makes it hard to see him contributing as a receiver, but Chisena could certainly make an impact on special teams for the Cardinals tomorrow.
It’ll be cool for him to return to an area he’s familiar with against his former team, and we’ll see if Chisena can make any impact against the team that cut him earlier this year.
